On Friday, Microsoft said it is combining its consumer Copilot with its workplace version into a single offering for companies. Earlier in the week in Seattle, executives walked a small group of corporate and tech leaders through the reworked assistant, which borrows visual polish from the home app and drops the branding that leaned into a personal AI identity.
Addressing the group, Jacob Andreou - who oversees product for the unified Copilot app - said people now measure work software against phone-quality experiences, adding that bringing over user experience touches from the consumer app "made Copilot so much better in just the last few months." He also noted that Microsoft's individual users tend to enjoy digging into PowerPoint and Excel, and they gravitate toward "the full power that we offer to enterprise users" more than a stripped down chat.
The refreshed Copilot lets users open and edit Word or Excel files directly inside a Copilot window in the app or a browser. A dedicated coding tab is designed so everyday users can assemble dashboards or automate repetitive work. Microsoft's always-available helper that colleagues can call on, previously known as Scout, is now part of the Copilot bundle under a new name, Autopilot. The release will begin appearing in the coming weeks.
Some consumer Copilot features made the cut, including tools for health questions, studying, and pulling in news and information. Others were left behind, such as custom podcasts and the shapeshifting blob avatar that used to appear in conversations. There are still playful touches: the new Autopilot helpers show up as smiling shapes when summoned in a Teams chat or an email.
Two years ago, Microsoft split its efforts to build two assistants - one for work and another for home. After helping OpenAI bring ChatGPT to the public, the company backed a consumer Copilot and tapped AI veteran Mustafa Suleyman to lead it. The bet ran into headwinds as ChatGPT surged to a billion users and Google pushed its Gemini assistant across Android.
By comparison, few people opted for Microsoft's personal chatbot. In March, Suleyman handed Copilot product responsibilities to Andreou, a former Snap executive.
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The timing of Microsoft's shift overlaps with Meta's launch of Muse, a personal assistant that can take actions for users and quickly shot up the app charts. Andreou and Charles Lamanna, who oversees teams building core workplace features for Copilot, said this shows people are open to AI-driven automation - and that Microsoft's lane is to bring those capabilities to the office. "We're not going to build a Copilot that's like your personal companion," Lamanna said.
By the end of June, over 30 million Copilot seats were being paid for by companies. Individuals get a basic chat tier at no cost, but the most advanced capabilities are available to subscribers of the M365 apps bundle, a group that numbers about 90 million paying users.
One of the first organizations trying it out is GHD, a Canadian firm in engineering and professional services that is part of Microsoft's early-access program for AI tools. David McLaren, the company's head of data and AI, said employees lean on Copilot to summarize conference calls, manage email, and help assemble client pitches and analysis. "It will get you off the white, blank page," he said.
GHD began in late 2023 with a pilot of roughly 300 people and has since rolled it out to all 12,000 employees. "I'm amazed by the use cases," McLaren said. "They're all over the place."
This is Microsoft choosing the office over the coffee table. The company is wrapping consumer flair into a business-first Copilot, tightening integrations with Word and Excel, and packaging always-on help through Autopilot. That's what's happening around Copilot."
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